FRom AHL call-up to playoff saviour?
Winnipeg’s Calvin Pickard helped the Edmonton Oilers even up their second round series with the Vancouver Canucks at two games apiece in his first ever NHL playoff game on Tuesday night.
The 32-year-old netminder made 19 saves in a stunning 3-2 victory which saw Vancouver's Dakota Joshua tie the game up with 1:41 to go in the third period, only to have Edmonton's Evan Bouchard score less than a minute later, restoring the Oilers' lead and evening up the series.
Pickard was called up from the Oilers' AHL affiliate in November to replace Jack Campbell, who was named the Oilers' No. 1 at the start of the season.
The former U18 AAA Winnipeg Wild star jumped on the opportunity and never looked back having a great season as Stuart Skinner’s backup and building trust between the pipes.
In 23 games this season, Pickard posted a 12-7-1 record with a .909 save percentage, a 2.45 goals against average and a single shutout - not too shabby for a goaltender who has only seen 53 games of NHL action since 2017.
Pickard is a pro hockey journeyman to say the least. Since joining the league, he has played for 13 pro hockey teams split between the AHL and NHL and even had a brief stint in Austria during the 2020-21 season.
Over his 14-year career, Pickard has found himself in almost every situation. That is until last night, when he played his first NHL Stanley Cup Playoff game in front of a sold-out Rogers Place (18,347 fans) with his team down in the series.
In a series which Vancouver is relying on its third-string goalie Arturs Silovs - who made his NHL playoff debut in Round 1 - no one expected Pickard to see the ice until the final handshake line of the Oilers' season, whether that be a Round 2 exit or a Stanley Cup win.
Skinner started the playoffs as the Oilers' No. 1 coming off a season where he played 59 games (fourth most in NHL) and posted a decent, but not outstanding, .905 save percentage.
“Stu” struggled in the postseason last year, getting pulled four times. This year has been no different. Among starters in the second round, Skinner ranks last in practically every goaltending statistic there is. And the headliner? An abysmal .877 save percentage.
After being pulled in game three after allowing four goals on 15 shots, Pickard took over for Skinner in Game 4 and helped the Oilers win. Although coach Kris Knoblauch has not confirmed, it is looking like Skinner will take Pickard’s spot on the bench for the foreseeable future.
On the stats sheet, the series is as close as you can get. The teams are tied with 14 goals each through four games, each game being decided by a single goal. However, the edge goes to the Oilers in shots on goal per game (31-20.5) and with their lethal powerplay which sits at 50 percent in the series.
While Vancouver waits for their Vezina contender Thatcher Demko to return from an injury, it looks to be a battle of the third stringers in the crease for possibly the rest of the series.
For both Pickard and Silovs, it’s a rematch of last year's five-game series in Round 1 of the AHL's Calder Cup Playoffs, when they were with their respective AHL affiliates, the Bakersfield Condors and Abbotsford Canucks.
Silovs and Abbotsford came out on top in last year's series but if the Oilers can maintain their dominant Game 4 form and get solid goaltending from the Winnipeg Monarchs and Team Manitoba alum, it looks like it’s Edmonton’s series for the taking.
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